


Stronger

by Lyrishadow



Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic (Video Game)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-19
Updated: 2020-08-19
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:53:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25989277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lyrishadow/pseuds/Lyrishadow
Summary: Introducing Khahira the bounty hunter, she has a complicated past - but she's one of the best shots the galaxy has seen, so the Great Hunt is her chance to make something for herself, make her own choices and forge her own destiny.
Relationships: Female Bounty Hunter/Torian Cadera
Kudos: 1





	Stronger

The last place in the galaxy you would have expected to have found her, the pretty polished floors of the Senate building had echoed with laughter and teasing it had been okay then. Her uncle was a lesser diplomat, so as her father was a captain with his ship, he ferried him back and forth to their homeworld. Khahira grew up in space, stars, and silence bouncing her happiness back to her, and she was happy as a child. She had been content. She had a head of blonde curls, always dressed in lacy dresses her mother loved putting on her. Her ideal had been to marry her prince and live a happy life. That was until she was 10.

The year she turned ten, warnings began to circulate about pirates between Coruscant and their home colony. They had been more vicious lately it was said, but her folks put it down to wild tales to scare children. Just the same they prepared, be it pirates or sith, they wanted to survive. Her parents taught her how to hide on the ship and call for help. They taught her not to fight. She resented that.   
There were significant gaps in her memory from when her mother had yelled hide, and she had been lifted out of the secret compartment by a large red Sith. She had been terrified.  
"Captain, you said there were no life signs?" The Sith sounded annoyed as he bent down to look at her.  
"Sir I.. " the Sith sighed as the man floundered. He was just an underling, and he knew not to cross a Sith.  
"Just get a medic." He had reached out and touched her right eye-stopping the pain with what amounted to a kind and gentle touch. Entirely at odds with everything she knew about their enemy.  
"Lord Faron, you found one alive?" The medic stated as he entered his tone more familiar, even friendly. "Shall we arrange to contact the Republic for exchange" the man's voice trailed off as he saw the tiny bundle near the Sith.  
"She is just a child." The Sith replied, his voice cold as he turned to attend to the rest of the vessel they were inspecting." There will be no exchange. You are to keep her alive." 0event 

Khahira ran a hand through her hair, rough and unsettled like her. It fell back over the scars. They served as a warning to others but a reminder to her that the past was dead.  
She counted the lines on her whiskey bottle. She always kept tabs on her liquor, not trusting her roommates to not fiddle with it. Her Sith benefactor had succumbed to that tactic. They had buried him in the tombs he loved exploring.  
Khahira took work as security in a cantina, and she was very good at her job. Her boss paid her well and let her stay in the dormitory the back. He learned not to ask where or what she spent money on, as long as she did not get drunk on his time. It was no secret that Khahira liked to drink in her off time.  
Her cybernetics had come at great expense, rebuilding her face and eye after the damage from the ship, and she assumed the pirates had been the cause of her injuries, she still did not remember what had happened.  
The republic had never even looked for her, but the Sith Lord Faron had decided he would take her and adopt her, raising her as his own until at 15 she had been dragged into Sith arguments and injured by a rival. After that, he had begun to hide money for her in investments, like property on Nar Shadda, in her name, so it paid her a tidy stipend. He had hired Rangan, the former medic and a friend, to take care of her and teach her skills so that she would survive. To shoot, and to dance in a close combat battle, to use her wits and keep her eyes open. She often spoke to the man she called her father and was upset when he warned her that there would be those who wanted her dead, so to protect her, he had kept her location a secret.  
So well hidden was Khahira that no one knew until he died that he had a child. With his death, she was well off - an apartment on Drommund Kaas, and money coming from investments all over the galaxy, she put her trust in Rangen to supervise things and continued just to live her life the way she had become accustomed to. She liked fighting, and at least working here, she was able to legitimize her kills. She did not pick fights correctly, but when they came, she fought ruthlessly with a hardened edge that being around Sith had encouraged in her.  
She drank at the bar in her off time, getting as close to drunk as she could by closing, Khahira could hold her liquor easily downing more than she ought to.

“Are you done?” a small voice next to her arm at the bar demanded, a petite dark-haired male stood there his expression grim. She noted the lightsaber but ignored it.  
“Done with what?” She nodded at him, “Picking fights is a bad plan.”  
“You took a walk with a Jedi the other day.” his general demeanor was one of curiosity more than anger, he sat on the stool closest to her so no-one could hear them.  
Ah, that Jedi, who had demanded he be allowed to interrogate the customers in the cantina, and was angry when told that it would not be done. With his moodiness, she had thought him of poor quality for a Jedi, and it had shown in the fight that ensured. She never fought in the cantina, it was against her best practices, and the Jedi was itching for a fight. Usually, if they walk with her to the ledge outside, they simmered down, and she could just get them to leave. Not that she had an issue even killing Jedi, or SIth, rules in the Cantina were in place for everyone, but you kept more customers if you didn’t kill them all.  
“I did try and send him home,” she replied calmly downing another shot.”He chose to start something…”  
“That…” the Jedi shook his head, “does more or less sound like my master..”  
“Your master? Did they send you here to clean up after him?” she asked, surprised at the behavior.  
“More or less.” He repeated the phrase his tone was grim.  
“Retrieve his body?”  
“No.” he shook his head, obviously finding that task to be one he would prefer not to be called on to do.   
“You want to arrest me?” she finally said, amused. That sounded like the Jedi she knew too far up in their rules to see how much it failed the people involved.  
“Yes. But…” he glanced at her clearly conflicted. “You look familiar…”  
“Grew up in the Empire, I doubt I look familiar to you,” she said shortly.   
“Wait.” he took out a datapad and began to scroll through it, settling on something he handed it to her.  
Missing child report. The title amused her, and it was the only sign she had perhaps mattered to anyone in the republic.  
“So?”  
“Is it you?” she should have just walked out then, but she nodded. Perhaps she really did enjoy the pain this bought on. She downed another shot of whiskey.  
“I…” he stuttered as he tried to gather his thoughts. “Ahem, you were kidnapped.”   
“What?” she shook her head angrily at the presumed insult to her father. "My father...The Sith saved my life; I was not kidnapped.”  
“Before that.” he touched the image of her as a child almost lovingly. It was starting to creep her out.  
“Look, Jedi, I don’t know what your game is, but I am pretty sure you have the wrong person.”  
“You are my cousin." He said finally with a deep sigh, “Your parents are dead now, but you were taken from within the Senate tower."   
Something sounded familiar like hearing the note in a song bu5 not being able to recall the lyrics, yet it all felt strange at the same time. She stared at her glass.  
" Look, I never figured you were dead. We played together as kids." He paused, taking a moment, " it was My fault you were taken."  
So who lied? Why didn’t she remember?  
" Let it go." She replied, making her own choice to ignore the pain this conversation was causing.  
"Yeah." He nodded," I thought I had, they get really strict on things like this, but…"  
" You thought you killed me?" She asked instinctively, touching the scars " don't worry even as a kid I was tough. I survived."  
"I see that. I owe it to you at least. not to try and make you kill me." At least he understood that much, the result of a fight with her or an attempt to arrest her, not that the Jedi had jurisdiction on Nar Shaddaa.   
“You aren’t meant to have…” she started to point out. Jedi were famed to not have family, or relationships. She had heard that they were taken young because it was easier to destroy connections that way.  
“I won’t be contacting you again, but didn’t want to leave you without saying something.” he shrugged “These things come as a shock I know but…”  
“It’s ok. I survived.” She repeated looking at him directly in the eyes, he had the same white eyes she had, same dark skin.   
“Good.” he nodded “Keep doing that.”  
With that he got up and left, just like that Khahira was forced to reconsider her entire life, though by the last glass of whiskey she had given up on the thoughts and decided to just let it die like it had before. She knew she was right - she had survived and that was all that mattered.


End file.
